Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

Opinion | Improved Immigration System Could Help Address Nursing Shortage, Editorial States
[Sep 12, 2007]
While it has been widely reported that "the dysfunctional U.S. immigration system contributes to labor shortages in agriculture," a less familiar fact is "that low green card quotas have also left the U.S. with an undersupply of nurses that threatens patient care," the Wall Street Journal writes in an editorial. The editorial cites a new study by Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy, which finds that the "aging U.S. population and low domestic production of nurses in the U.S. has created a nursing shortage that carries deadly consequences."

The Journal notes that despite "more interest in the profession" among U.S. residents, "faculty shortages and inadequate facilities have prevented nursing programs from expanding enrollment." It continues, "When growers can't find field hands, food rots and businesses lose money. But when hospitals can't find nurses, patient care suffers."

The Journal states that the "long-term solution here is to increase nursing faculty and teaching facilities. But in the short run, Congress could help enormously by easing the limit on foreign nurses allowed entry to the U.S." The editorial concludes, "More such green cards are needed now, before hospital understaffing contributes to more preventable illness and death" (Wall Street Journal, 9/12).




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